Forgotten Warriors: The Long History of Women in Combat

by Sarah Percy

Overview

The definitive history of women in war, revealing how women have always been an essential part of combat 

From Boudicca’s rebellion to the war in Ukraine, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women. Some formed all-female armies, like the Dahomey Mino of West Africa; some fought disguised as men; some mobilized in times of national survival, like the Soviet flying aces known as the Night Witches. International relations expert Sarah Percy unearths the stories of these forgotten warriors. She sets the historical record straight, revealing that women’s exclusion from active combat in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is a blip in a much longer narrative of female inclusion. Deeply researched and brilliantly told, Forgotten Warriors turns the notion of war as a man’s game on its head and restores women to their rightful place on the front lines of history. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541619869
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	289,845
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Sarah Percy is associate professor at the University of Queensland. The author of Mercenaries, she completed her MPhil and DPhil as a Commonwealth Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. She lives in Brisbane, Australia. 

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

Percy (Mercenaries), a professor of international relations at the University of Queensland, surveys in this colorful account women who served on the battlefield. Among her subjects are all-female armies such as the Dahomey Mino of West Africa, who lived in present-day Benin from the 17th to the 19th century; women who fought disguised as men, among them Christian Davies, an Irishwoman who fought for the British at the turn of the 18th century in several conflicts, including the War of Spanish Succession; women who mobilized in times of national crisis, such as the Soviet WWII flying aces known as the Night Witches; as well as women who have served essential noncombat functions on the front lines. Percy examines how the exclusion of women from active combat only began a few hundred years ago, and demonstrates it was only in the late 19th century—as warfare became increasingly professionalized and nation-states began to formalize rules around combat—that women were imagined to belong firmly on the home front. The outbreak of WWI changed this attitude, as countries found their resources pushed to the limit by the emergence of global, industrial warfare. By the end of the 20th century, women were once again on battlefields around the world. Percy profiles her subjects against a vivid backdrop of sieges, rebellions, and civil wars. Women’s history buffs will be thrilled. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Ms. Percy’s lively survey is rooted in a simple premise: Excluding women from warfare, she argues—whether its study or practice—has perpetuated patriarchal dominance.” —Wall Street Journal

“Truly impressive in scope and rigorously researched, this is a book that should be included in all military libraries.” —Marissa Moss, New York Journal of Books

“Percy expertly addresses the erasure of women’s involvement in war from a global perspective… Percy’s great strength is the impressive scope and detail of her research.” —Toronto Star

"Magnificently researched, Forgotten Warriors opens up and heightens intellectual landscapes. … Percy’s revelatory script upsets everything we have learnt, directing us to re-learning. It could not be more timely."—The Monthly

“In this colorful account… Percy profiles her subjects against a vivid backdrop of sieges, rebellions, and civil wars. Women’s history buffs will be thrilled.” —Publishers Weekly

"Beautifully written, Sarah Percy’s Forgotten Warriors is captivating from beginning to end. Women have long held important wartime roles—not as passive victims, but as soldiers and strategists. They departed the battlefield only in the mid-19th century, though female African warriors endured for a century more. Twentieth century women soldiers, snipers and pilots helped win both world wars, then were packed off to vanish at home. Percy’s engaging history shows us that allowing women to serve in combat today is nothing new: hoorah for a marvelous reminder of what they could do all along."—Audrey Kurth Cronin, Trustees Professor of Security and Technology, Carnegie Mellon University

“Forgotten Warriors carefully debunks the long-held myth that war is not women’s business. In this well-researched and insightful book, Percy deftly reveals examples of women warriors throughout history, demonstrating that the exclusion of women from the battlefield is a recent development. Today, the routine naming of women as ‘non-combatants’ erases their heroic deeds and keeps them out of positions of power and leadership in society. The idea that in war women stay safely ‘at home’ far from the conflict has never been true. Forgotten Warriors is an essential remedy to the marginalization of female soldiers, affirming that women are—and always have been—brave and capable fighters.”—Gwen Strauss, author of The Nine

“Percy has written the definitive history of women in combat. Rightly exposing women’s exclusion from the battlefield today as a key problem of our times, this eminently readable and provocative book completely reshapes how we think of the relationship between women and war.”—Charli Carpenter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

"Percy provides an unrivaled examination into women at war. She lays to rest the myth that women do not fight, and corrects a historical amnesia that overlooks their role on the battlefield. This engaging book reveals that across the ages bands of brothers and sisters have marched together for victory.”—Sean McFate, author of The New Rules of War

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